Dandelion Award for Sun 10th June 2012

The Dandelion Award was created as my way of thanking all those that nominated Liberated Way for various blogging awards. The Dandelion Award is designed to recognise in the opinion of this writer those blogs that are outstanding in five areas as set out here. The Dandelion Award is different from other blogging awards as it is a hassle free award with no obligations on the part of the winner to do anything, it just provides publicity to one quality blog a week. The winner can display the Dandelion Award image on their blog if they wish to do so.

This blog is created by a mother based in the USA who has a need to get outside in nature for her “physical and emotional health”. This is a need reflected in her 4 (?) year-old-son which sets the foundations for her philosophy and blog:

“My name is Linda, and I’m a Bay Area mom who loves to get outside for playtime every day with my son. Our outdoor time may be social, solo, park or nature-based, near or at home, quick or lengthy, but, whatever form it takes, we make a point of getting out every day.”

“In this blog, I will share what I’ve learned, hoping it will help inspire others with children, encouraging families to get out into the outdoors more. I’ll write about the places we go, the things we do, the benefits of outdoor play, and tips and tricks that make outside time fun.”

The blog appears to have been started in February 2012.

1. The blog is full of practical wisdom that can be used in life by the reader.

anaturemom.com is packed with practical wisdom focused upon the benefits of getting children out in nature with their care givers. Practical wisdom is about the “doing”, and the blog is a record of the daily activities of a mother with her son, who actively engages in an activity every day with crafts, nature or experiential visits to events. This is the ideal that all parents should be engaging in with their children, and those children who have the blessing of being part of such activities are lucky people, who will benefit in all areas of their personal development.

Everyone is bound to find something of practical value in this blog, such as how to turn a pizza box into a solar oven.

2. The blog is inspirational, that makes me go “wow”.

There is a lot of humanity in this blog, such as the story of the snails. The family are lucky that they also have close encounters with nature in their back yard. This person is an excellent writer, who with a talent for photography creates many “wow” moments in their blog. The blog is a writing inspiration.

3. The blog and its writing is well presented in a creative way.

The blog is well laid out with well written short blogs backed with photos and links. The template is a good choice for one with a healthy mix of image and text. There is limited clutter, and it encourages the visitor to hang around and read more.

4. The blog is updated on a regular basis.

Most of the time the blog is updated with one post a day, sometimes two posts.

5. The blog is developing a close relationship with its readers.

The blog has a healthy following, loads of “likes”, and its writer replies to most comments. The blogger finds the time to read other WordPress blogs, “like” and comment on them.

Wow, such kind words! Thank you so much!! We write and we post, but we never really know if anyone is out there reading, especially for me, being new to the whole blogging thing. I always appreciate your comments and encouragement, but, more-so, I love reading what you write! It never fails to gives me something to think about. And, yes, my son secretly turned five within the last month :)